Prosecutor says Pizza Hut robber had been doing time for stabbing death

District Judge Daniel Bryan handed down a 20-year prison sentence to Steven Sapp, 34 of Tarkio, Mo., for a 2008 robbery at the Tecumseh Pizza Hut.

Prosecutors say Sapp and Travis W. Stewart, 30, of Springfield, Mo., entered the restaurant around 9:45 p.m. on March 4 wearing ski masks and one displaying a handgun. They ordered the three female employees to lay on the ground and demanded money.

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Nebraska City News-Press - Nebraska City, NE

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Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 9:08 AM

Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 9:08 AM

Tecumseh

District Judge Daniel Bryan handed down a 20-year prison sentence to Steven Sapp, 34 of Tarkio, Mo., for a 2008 robbery at the Tecumseh Pizza Hut.

Prosecutors say Sapp and Travis W. Stewart, 30, of Springfield, Mo., entered the restaurant around 9:45 p.m. on March 4 wearing ski masks and one displaying a handgun. They ordered the three female employees to lay on the ground and demanded money.

The women complied, but two were hit in the head with a metal object causing injuries that required medical treatment.

Stewart was sentenced in 2009 to a 20-year prison sentence for his role in the robbery.

Deputy Johnson County Attorney Rick Smith said there a lapse in time between the sentences because Sapp had been serving a 10-year sentence in Missouri on a manslaughter conviction. Weeks after the Tecumseh robbery, he stabbed 40-year-old Steven Leach to death.

Smith said prosecutors were silent on the manslaughter case prior to sentencing so that it did not impact Sapp's right to a fair trial in Nebraska, but said Monday that Sapp stabbed Leach during a scuffle in Pickering, Mo., on March 30, 2008.

“We have known Steven Sapp’s location since 2008, and he has continuously been incarcerated since that time. We had to wait our turn to bring him to Johnson County to face these charges,” Smith said.

Smith added, “It has been frustrating that more than five years have passed since this incident, but I am glad that justice is finally served and that both these men remain behind bars.”